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A star Brazilian footballer has been jailed for more than two decades
for ordering the kidnap and murder of his girlfriend, who was
dismembered and fed to his pet dogs.
Bruno Fernandes de Souza, 28, who was tipped to play for Brazil at the
2014 World Cup, and was to be transferred to AC Milan for a Million
Pounds was sentenced to 22 years and three months in prison for the
murder of Eliza Samudio, whom he apparently had killed to avoid paying
child support after she gave birth to his love child....He was arrested
last year HERE for kidnapping her and he admitted to the crime last week HERE.
Judge Marixa Fabiane Rodrigues said the goalkeeper, who played for
Brazil's biggest team Flamengo, had 'meticulously calculated' Ms
Samudio's execution.
He told the court in Contagem, south-east Brazil, that the footballer
was 'twisted' and had 'instilled in his personality a total
misunderstanding of values.'
He added: 'Bruno believed that, by making the body disappear, he could ensure total impunity.'
The former player had previously denied any knowledge of what happened
to the 25-year-old, but told a court this week how his best friend Luiz
Henrique Romao had paid someone to kill her.
He admitted that although he hadn't ordered his former lover to be killed, he had 'accepted' it.
The goalkeeper is accused of planning Ms Samudio's abduction and murder
with eight others including his wife Dayane, another former lover, a
cousin and former policeman Marcos Santos.
But he told the court in Contagem that his cousin, Jorge Rosa, who had witnessed the murder, had told him what had happened.
He claimed that after kidnapping Ms Samudio, Romao had taken her to a
house in Belo Horizonte where hired killer Santos was waiting.
He said: 'There he held her hands and asked [Romao] to tie them in front of her, and put a tie around her neck.
'And [Romao] even kicked Eliza's legs away. That's what Jorge told me.
And that they had chopped up her body, that they had thrown her body for
the dogs to eat.'
The former star admitted that he feels 'guilty' for her death despite instisting that he never oredered the killing.
Ms Samudio, who had previously claimed to have had an affair with Real
Madrid ace Cristiano Ronaldo, met Bruno at a footballers' party in May
2009 and fell pregnant by accident, it is claimed.
The goalkeeper demanded she have an abortion but she went ahead with the
pregnancy, instead insisting that he assume paternity of the child.
Before her disappearance on June 4, 2010, Ms Samudio had approached
police claiming she had been held captive by Bruno and his associates,
who forced her to take an illegal abortion drug.
Bruno allegedly put a gun to her head and told her: 'You don't know who I am or what I'm capable of - I'm from the favela.'
The baby, Bruninho, was born in February 2010, but the player refused to acknowledge he was the father.
Prosecutors allege that Bruno ordered Ms Samudio's murder after she told
him she would take legal action to force him to pay child support.
In a statement to police, the footballer's teenage cousin Jorge Rosa
claimed he and Romao picked up Ms Samudio and her son from a Rio de
Janeiro hotel after she accepted an invitation by the footballer to talk
about the paternity claims.
He said they drove her 220 miles to a property in Belo Horizonte which
Bruno and his wife used as a weekend retreat, where she was held captive
for six days.
Ms Samudio was then allegedly handed over to former military policeman
Santos, who committed 'barbaric tortures' on her before strangling her
to death with a neck tie in front of her four-month-old son.
Santos, who was allegedly paid £8,000 to murder her, played loud music
on a stereo to drown out the woman's screams, it is claimed.
Edson Moreira, a detective who investigated the case, said: 'His acts
were almost impossible to describe without breaking down - images from
the worst nightmare you could imagine.'
Police later found Ms Samudio's four-month-old baby in a Belo Horizonte
slum, alleged to have been abandoned there by Bruno's wife Dayane. DNA
tests later proved the footballer's paternity.
The child is now being looked after by Ms Samudio's mother.
Bruno's trial, which began on Monday, is expected to conclude today. If found guilty he could be jailed for up to 41 years.
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